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-22- <br />major fault has been encountered in the Somerset Mine. The faults <br />which have been encountered in existing mines tend to be high angle <br />normal faults. <br />The steep slopes of the stream valleys and the instability of the rock <br />strata in the North Fork Drainage Basin has contributed to numerous <br />landslides, mud flows and rock falls. These mass wasting features have <br />been mapped by.W.R. Junge of the Colorado Geological Survey and <br />published as an open file report, entitled "Geologic Hazards, North <br />Fork Gunnison River Valley, Delta and Gunnison Counties, Colorado". <br />Geologic units exposed"in the North Fork Drainage Basin consist of Late <br />Cretaceous•to Early Tertiary Age sedimentary strata, Tertiary Age <br />igneous intrusives, and quaternary Age alluvial and colluvial <br />deposits. A generalized stratigraphic column of Late Cretaceous units <br />can be found in Figure 3. The units are described below in ascending <br />order. <br />The Mancos Shale is the oldest. strata exposed in the region, and is of <br />Late Cretaceous Age. This unit is composed of over 4,000 feet of gray <br />marine shales and minor interbedded buff sandstones. This unit is <br />highly erodible and unstable. Erosion and oversteepening of slopes in <br />this formation produce the numerous rock falls and landslides observed <br />in the lower North Fork Drainage Basin (Junge, 1978). <br />The Mesa Verde Formation is of Late Cretaceous Age. and conformably <br />overlies the Mancos Shale. This formation consists of approximately <br />2,300 feet of marine and terrestrial sedimentary rocks. The Mesa Verde <br />Formation is the coal-bearing formation in the region and is divided <br />into four main members; the Rollins sandstone, the Lower Coal Bearing <br />Bowie) member, the Upper Coal Bearing (Paonia) member, and the Barren <br />Undifferentiated) member (Johnson, 1948). <br />The Rollins sandstone member is a 120 to 200 foot thick, massive, <br />cross-bedded, medium to fine-grained, buff to white sandstone. This <br />sandstone is regionally extensive and resistant in outcrop and forms <br />prominent cliffs. This member is used regionally as a marker horizon <br />to define the top of the Mancos Shale and the bottom of the <br />coal-bearing horizons. <br />The Lower Coal Bearing (Bowie) member consists of 260 to 350 feet of <br />interbedded gray shales, thin to thick lenticular beds of buff-colored, <br />fine- to medium-grained sandstones, and coals. The top of the member <br />is usually capped by a massive buff-colored sandstone up to 90 feet in <br />thickness. This sandstone, however, appears not to be a single <br />persistent bed, but is actually several thick lenticular sandstones <br />occurring at progressively lower stratigraphic horizons from east to <br />west. <br />Three coal horizons exist in the Lower Coal-Bearing member, the "A" <br />(Old King) horizon, the "B" (Somerset) horizon, and the "C" (Bear) <br />horizon. The "A" horizon is immediately above the Rollins sandstone <br /> <br />